1. Paint: Paint is making an impression on the catwalk and the street. Burberry showed macs daubed with broad brush strokes and Chanel had bright spatters woven into tweed on jackets

2. Athletic goth: In line with a desire to be healthy and active, black Lycra and running shoes are making a sleek statement both in and out of the gym

3. Sustainable fashion: Sustainability and environmentally friendly concerns are playing into in greener and more conscious clothing options on the runways and on the street.

4. Fashion you can eat up: Food is becoming a fashion item. Moschino has done it with a McDonald’s themed collection and pepperoni pizza print outfits are all the rage. We aren’t so sure about this trend but who knows, you might be wearing your favourite meal soon?

5. Gingham: Michael Kors showed gingham dresses, while Diane von Furstenberg bought the print to a retro state. This cool and breeze pattern is going to be a spring hit.

6. The no-statement, statement bag: The statement bag of 2015 is simple, with limited hardware and a focus on restrain. Consider our Minimalist Jute Envelope Clutch to do the trick.

2015 Spring fashion trends adapted from The Huffington Post:

1. Feathers: Feathers can make a bold statement via a fabulous two-piece outfit or make a subtle entrance via an accessory such as shoes or a shawl.

2. Statement Stripes: You’re not going to be able to escape stripes’ clutches this spring (we can all thank Coco Chanel for starting the trend way back in the ’20s). Our Minimalist Jute Envelope Clutch fits with this trend too.

3. Safari Chic: Think green belted mini-dresses that invoked safari guides and fitted khaki trousers that would fit right in at an upscale event.

4. Sportswear: Lace-up details, stripes and tennis whites were used in subtle ways that brought a modern elegance to the clothes.

5. Subtle 70s: Flared trousers, jean skirts, retro collars and fringe sweaters were out in full force on the spring 2015 runways.

6. White: White is universally flattering and designers proved it by filling their runways with many shades of the hue on everything from sheer blouses to sweaters.

An ad printed in the pages of Vogue magazine in 1967 inviting consumers to think of fashion as an investment.

Type the words ‘future’ and ‘fashion’ into any search engine, and you’ll get a stream of results on 3-D printing, wearable technology and e-commerce websites – sustainability is but a mere mention. Yet, the S-word has undeniably made its way into the modern apparel-making process and increasingly influences what lands on runways and store racks.

Through innovative business practices, the fashion industry has come a long way in improving environmental and social conditions along complex global supply chains. Still, it has a way to go. A brief look into the industry’s storied past illuminates how corporate style setters have responded to shifting consumer demands, market trends and natural resource constraints over the years – signaling what the future of sustainable fashion might hold.

From industrialization to Earth Day

When the first department stores appeared in the United States in the late 19th century, amid the rise of the Industrial Revolution, sewing machines were relatively new and child labor was still legal. Most clothes were made to order domestically, and only a slice of the population owned enough garments to fill a small closet.

Fast-forward to the postwar consumer boom where strip malls became as common as tract housing, and shopping became as much of a national pastime as cruising around in a Chevrolet. The consumer culture cultivated in the 1950s established an economy based on mass production – at the time most consumer goods were made in America. That same ethos sparked a proliferation of malls, outlet stores and seasonal sales to encourage more consumption.

The postwar mentality of growth without limits was not met without dissent. As political and social movements developed in the late 1960s and 1970s – for civil rights and against the Vietnam War – a growing awareness of humans’ impact on the planet also gave rise: The first Earth Day was commemorated on April 22, 1970. While the modern environmental movement had its start well before that day, sustainable fashion sprouted from the seeds of the paisley patterns sewn onto patchwork bell-bottoms widespread during that period.

Opening the flood gates

As eco-consciousness, the “do it yourself” (DIY) movement and consumer awareness of clothes’ potential second life emerged in the later part of the 20th century, consumerism swelled to unprecedented limits. During this time, the apparel industry experienced major shifts in production logistics, timelines and scale – much of which increased output and helped fuel shoppers’ mounting desire to fill their ever-growing closets.

One important shift occurred in 1973, when the U.S. and other countries signed an agreement that set up a quota system to limit the amount of textile and apparel imports from specific countries – intended to protect U.S. business interests. Instead, the agreement drove up domestic manufacturing costs. When the quota system was eliminated in 2005 and replaced by a World Trade Organization agreement, the floodgates to outsource manufacturing abroad were opened, and all bets to guard one of America’s homegrown industries were off.

“Moving production off-shore was the impetus for fashion becoming more global,” said Connie Ulasewicz, co-editor of “Sustainable Fashion: Why Now?” and associate professor at San Francisco State University. “Companies moved their manufacturing to places like Cambodia, Vietnam and Mongolia, where there are no minimum wage or age requirements or regulations on maximum hours worked. When this happened, people also lost contact with how and where their clothes were made.”

The movement to manufacture clothes abroad also led to a slew of controversies that prompted consumers to begin to question the origin of their garments.

The rise of conscious consumerism

In 1991 Nike came under fire for the low wages and poor working conditions at one of its Indonesian factories; consumer protests and boycotts, as well as heavy media attention, drove the company to make some serious changes to its supply chain. This and other tragic incidents (most recently the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh) forced the industry to take stock and shape up.

Twenty-four years later, that same multinational athletic-wear giant is one of the world’s most sustainable companies. And while Nike and other apparel companies still compete to drive down costs and increase margins, they also now compete to boost their reputation as good corporate citizens – and win conscious consumers’ hearts, minds and pocket books.

Patagonia’s Responsible Economy campaign is one example of a brand continually demonstrating to consumers how sustainability is sewn into its corporate DNA. Other companies have cleverly innovated to raise consumer awareness of their part in a garment’s life cycle, such as Levi’s Care Tag for Our Planet and Water<Less, Waste<Less, and Wellthread collections.

Even big names like Gucci and Calvin Klein want in on the sustainability game, and mainstream labels like Stella McCartney and Puma are re-imagining what style can stand for (faux fur and environmental profit and loss accounting, anyone?). The trend towards sustainability in the fashion industry is clear.

“Globalization allows us to not pay very much for clothes,” said Linda Welters, fashion professor at the University of Rhode Island. “If people buy at a deeply reduced priced, they have a throwaway mentality about clothes, and that’s the one major factor that’s a problem.”

As more e-commerce sites pop up and make it easier to purchase outfits with the click of a button – and perhaps someday deliver our goods in an instant via drones – that throwaway mentality is the fashion industry’s Achilles heel. To thrive, global apparel brands will need to reinvent their business models, embrace the circular economy and creatively invite consumers to do away with throwing away. Considering that as much as two-thirds of a garment’s total environmental impact occurs in the consumer use phase (washing and drying), fashion brands must engage consumers in sustainability to truly move the needle.

The future of sustainable fashion will not rise out of a lower-priced T-shirt, the next 3-D printed creation or cool-looking wearable tech gadgets, it will come alive in how our fashion finds are made, how they’re used, and how they’re disposed of or reused — cradle to cradle, from seamstress’ fingertips to consumers’ hands.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has committed $4 million 11 socially conscious enterprise projects across the province. The contribution is being made from the Social Enterprise Demonstration Fund and is expected to leverage more than $6 million in investment from other sources, including the private sector.

“A society where everyone has the opportunity to contribute in a positive way is the foundation of our future prosperity. We’re proud to invest in savvy entrepreneurs who will improve life for people in Ontario, while driving economic growth and creating jobs,” Wynne told the Economic Club of Canada in Thursday.

This investment ties into the government’s goal to make Ontario a leading region for social enterprise in North America and to help tackle some of Ontario’s pressing social issues. Social enterprises provide jobs and generate income, while achieving social, cultural, and/or environmental goals. Per Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure, there are now 10,000 such businesses in Ontario employing about 160,000 people.

We hope some of this funding touches the space of fashion and retail in Ontario, to help continue the move towards ethically-conscious enterprise.

It’s time to celebrate love and caring this Valentine’s day! We hope for this Valentine’s Day you purchased ethically made gifts, chocolate and other treats for your friends and loved ones. Light those candles, set the mood and share the message of ethical fashion! See you next year with more #GlobalLove for Valentine’s Day!

Recently, WME-IMG, the company that owns and produces fashion week, announced that it would not be returning to the venue it has called home for the last 4 years. In addition to acquiring MADE Fashion Week (a younger, fresher event and a competitor of sorts), the event will not be held at the Lincoln Center.

The change is inspired by the desire for a less commercialized, more authentic feel to fashion in New York City. Consumers are hungry for personalized and bespoke products, handcrafted goods that can’t be replicated thousands of times on the shelves of Forever 21 or Zara. Moreover, fashionistas are tired of airbrushed, unnatural models that replicate an unattainable human image.

Through MADE fashion week, brands are welcome but are encourage to present a more creative perspective to their fashions. MADE, an event known for acting as a “creative” hub, has gained notoriety through providing talented fledgling designers like Proenza Schouler, Public House, Joseph Altuzarra and Alexander Wang with a free show space and makeup.

We are excited to see what will come out of a combination of WME’s scale and brand, with MADE’s creative license.

“Many of us know on an intellectual level that most clothing retailers use sweatshop labourto create cheap, unsustainable “fast fashion.” But how many of us know it on a gut level what it means to work in one of these factories? It may either be a striking example of poetic justice or a staged publicity stunt, but an eye-opening, online docu-series called Sweatshop: Dead Cheap Fashionfollows what happens to three fashion-loving Norwegian teens, in reality TV style, as they are sent by Norway’s Aftenpostennewspaper to work in a Cambodian sweatshop.

The five short but eventful episodesshow 17-year-old fashion blogger Anniken Jørgensen,19-year-old Frida Ottesen and 20-year-old Ludvig Hambro as they live, eat and work beside sweatshop employees. The series begins in Cambodia’s captial, Phnom Penh, with the teenagers displaying typical, mainstream rationalizations about sweatshop labour: they believe that “these people” have always lived like this and don’t know or aspire to anything better. “They’ve never seen Norwegian houses,” says Jørgensen. “[At least] they have a job.”

As the teenagers are put to work though, the everyday reality of their now-fellow workers sinks in. Details like how a worker may sew the same seam for years, or how workers cannot afford the very clothes they make thanks to wages that barely even covers basic living expenses, are highlighted by cameras to demonstrate the inhumane insanity of an industry that squeezes their workers to lower prices for consumers, and to increase profit margins for the big companies.

The struggles of the workers’ daily life are emphasized in one episode where the youngsters are asked to feed themselves, the camera crew and their hosts with their day’s wages of approximately $9. They struggle to scrape something together, and the indignity becomes visceral for Hambro, who says:

To experience how short $9 reach is something you can’t see on TV. What it actually costs to live here, you just don’t get to know. They don’t have money for food; the big fashion chains starve their workers. And nobody holds them responsible.”

As part of an exhibition in Brooklyn, New York called “Cloud Couture”, Billie Whitehouse, an Australian designer explores how digital technology is being embedded in clothing. The show, at Pratt Institute’s Brooklyn Fashion and Design Accelerator in Williamsburg, runs until Feb. 12, with an open house on Sunday and tours by appointment at other times.

Every garment on display is able to collect data signals from the wearer such as pulse, breathing, temperature, blood pressure and pheromones and transfer the information to the cloud. This exhibit shows the power and risks of wearable tech.

On one hand, the ability to monitor and track in-depth data about our bodies might seem too invasive to some. Should the companies providing such tech be allowed to collect, store and analyze this data about consumer behaviour?

However, the impact that this tech could have on fitness and health applications is promising. For example, wearable tech that monitors breathing, heart rate and other vital signs can be communicated by Bluetooth to a smartphone, a useful tool for people with chronic medical conditions.

This wearable tech is not just innovative but also enables the use of LED and other technology to create new design esthetics, as well. The question is, how far can we go with this new technology?

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The Bay & Harbour Blog

Bay & Harbour is the brainchild of a Toronto-based mother/daughter team with an eye for trend-setting, unique and high-quality fashion & lifestyle products.

The pair is inspired by different cultures, handicraft techniques, discrete designs, and fashion trends from their travels around the world. Bay & Harbour as their outlet to share that love of design with others.

The Bay & Harbour collections feature a variety of accessories & lifestyle products for both men & women.

The co-founders are passionate about fashion with a cause. Many of the Bay & Harbour collections also include pieces that are sustainable and / or ethically made.